Bodo students threaten to block NHs, railway lines

A Bodo students organisation has threatened to block the national highways and railway lines connecting the northeast for 1000 hours if the Centre fails to create a separate state of Bodoland out of Assam.

New Delhi: A Bodo students organisation has threatened to block the national highways and railway lines connecting the northeast for 1000 hours if the Centre fails to create a separate state of Bodoland out of Assam.

Addressing a press conference, All Bodo Students Union (ABSU) president Pramod Boro demanded creation of the separate state immediately, saying the central and Assam governments have been discriminating against the Bodo tribals.
"If the central government can create Telangana, why cannot they create a separate Bodoland state? Our demand is older than the demand for Telangana," he said.

Boro threatened to block the national highways and railway tracks connecting the northeast up to 1000 hours if the Centre fails to look into the demand.

He said three other organisations, including Bodo People`s Progressive Front, a political party, are fully behind the ABSU`s demand for separate Bodoland.
BPPF leader and former Rajya Sabha member U G Brahma criticised the Centre`s move to set an one-man committee of former Home Secretary G K Pillai to examine the demand of Bodoland state saying it would be a futile exercise as a similar body set up in 1991-92 could not bring any solution.

Brahma, however, said the agitation will start after the General Elections.